A School Psychologist's resource for all things tech.

There are times when something makes you think, “you’re meant to write a blog post today” and today is one of those days. I received an alert via AppShopper that an app I use and one I’ve been wanting to write about dropped in price. So here I am, writing a post so that maybe you can take advantage of iRewards being on sale. Both of the apps below are great apps to use for behavior plans.

There are many ways to utilize iRewards but recently I used it with a student who needed a lot of external motivation in order to persevere through challenging tasks. Who would have thought the cognitive assessments that require a student to get 5 or 6 wrong in a row would be frustrating?!

Overview

I think of iRewards as similar to token strips meaning you have a set number of tasks, steps, behaviors, expectations you want the student to complete before they will receive a break or reward or preferential activity. An example would be 5 math problems before earning time on an iPad. Within iReward you would choose “reward after 5” and then the picture might be one of an iPad or a picture of the student playing on the iPad.

Pros / Features

Multiple student rewards can be set-up

Multiple goals/rewards for each student

Ability to email and then import already set-up rewards

Ability to record voice praise for completion

Lock the screen so the number of behaviors can’t be changed without knowing how to unlock the app

Google image search built in so you don’t have to first search google and then save the image to your camera roll.

Cons / Improvements

I wish you could customize the stars to make them something else like other shapes especially if a student is especially motivated by earning coins, cars, trains, etc.

The main screen you see once you have the goal and rewards setup

Multiple goals for each student as well as the ability to share and import

Change the number of tasks for child to receive before reward. Import images from google. Record verbal praise

Overview

Who doesn’t like a little excitement delivered by a random reward? Win a Spin is a 6 space spinning wheel that you can customize for what rewards are displayed. This would be great to use as the reward for the tasks completed with iRewards app. If you’re thinking, whatever happened to a good sticker chart, why so many bells and whistles? I think about that sometimes as well.

Pros / Features

Plenty of places to put in potential rewards

Great exciting way to provide random reinforcers

Cons / Improvements

Have to fill in all 6 options otherwise you might land on a blank space

Can’t have multiple spinners/students set-up

Only text rewards, not images

Additional Ways to Utilize these Apps

I love utilizing both of these apps in conjunction with Intervention Central’s Jackpot Reward Finder. I often have teachers look at which rewards they’re willing to offer to students and then I work with the students to have them indicate which rewards they would really like to earn. I’ve stopped being surprised by how many students want rewards such as adult attention through game time, or talk time, etc.

What other apps to you use to support behavior plans of behavior interventions? I’d love to see some more and try out other ones!